Summer got a little sweeter in Oceanside with the opening of a new Häagen-Dazs shop at the Sands Shopping Center, offering residents and beachgoers a new destination for ice cream, shakes, cakes and other frozen treats.
The shop, located at 3567 Long Beach Road, celebrated its grand opening on Aug. 29. The event included free mini scoop of ice cream for the first 500 guests, as well as peel-off cards offering customers a chance to win prizes, including a $500 Häagen-Dazs Shop gift card. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held with the Chamber of Commerce.
Owner Lav Patel said Oceanside stood out as an ideal location for the business because of its strong community, families, young people and activity surrounding the shopping center.
“[It] felt like a community that had a lot of potential for a brand like Häagen-Dazs,” Patel said. “We wanted to create a local shop that felt like it belonged in Oceanside.”
Patel said the business has already received an encouraging response since its soft opening in July.
“One of the things that has been most rewarding is seeing people come back,” Patel said. “We’ve developed regular customers surprisingly quickly — people who come in every week for a cup or a cone, a shake, or even a pint to take home.”
Patel and his family decided to open the business with the goal of building something lasting that could become part of their family’s story. Opening the franchise required a significant commitment of time and investment, but the family was drawn to the opportunity to create a business while becoming involved in the community.
“There’s something special about being able to look around and know that something you built from the ground up is going to be part of your family’s story,” Patel said. “There was something appealing about doing it in a community rather than simply treating it as an investment — we wanted to open a business where we could actually get to know our customers and become part of the neighborhood.”
The family selected Häagen-Dazs because of the brand’s longstanding reputation for quality, while the variety of products allows the shop to serve customers for more than an occasional ice cream purchase.
Building relationships with residents, organizations and other local businesses will also be an important part of the shop’s future, Patel said.
“We don’t want to just be a business that happens to have an address in Oceanside,” he said. “We want to actually be part of the community.”
Ultimately, Patel said he hopes the shop become associated with memories as much as ice cream — a place where families visit after dinner, children celebrate accomplishments and friends gather.
“Our goal is to build something that lasts, a business that becomes a small but meaningful part of the community,” Patel said. “For us, success isn’t just measured by sales. It’s also about becoming a place that people recognize, trust and feel connected to.”
